Heaven's Lost Property: Last Goodbyes
by grey987
Summary: Four months have passed since the angeloids' last battle, and so far life has continued to be normal for Tomoki and the others. However, a new, more deadly threat arrives in Sorami City and has one target set in his sights: the angeloid known as Achos. In a race against the clock, the angeloids must protect their friend and figure out how to defeat an enemy they can't see coming.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey guys. I'm back with the sequel to "Dark Skies", and here's the first chapter! Hope you enjoy.**

**If you haven't read "Dark Skies" yet, I advise that you read that first.**

**Since I couldn't include this in the summary, this is rated T for all the same reasons as "Dark Skies".**

* * *

It was the first weekend in December. Sorami City was quiet, with people going about their daily routines. At Doremi Cinemas, two people walked out side by side. One was a girl, with blue hair, blue eyes and pigtails. She wore brown boots and a long pink dress with a light-pink and purple sweater overtop, and had a yellow purse strapped over her shoulder. The other person was a boy, who had straight black hair and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a red t-shirt, a black hoodie with a red dragon on the back overtop of it (the inside of the hood being red), black sweatpants and black and red sneakers. Unbeknownst to the people around them, these two were angeloids whose names were Nymph and Achos. Nymph had a slight bounce in her step, smiling as she and Achos walked back home from the movie theatre.

"So, what do you want to see next?" Nymph asked cheerfully as she looked up at Achos. He shrugged.

"Doesn't matter to me, so long as it isn't a bad movie," he responded. Nymph lightly punched Achos' arm.

"You're no fun, Omega," she whined. "I thought you liked those movies where people fight and stuff. I'm sure they're showing a couple of them!" Achos sighed in defeat.

"If you insist, we'll go see one of those next week," he said. Nymph's smile returned as they continued to walk.

"So, there anything else you want to do, like go to an arcade or something?" Nymph asked. Achos thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Sure. Then we'll head home," he answered. The two walked silently for a moment, before Nymph spoke again.

"You really have to work on choosing things for yourself, Omega."

"What?" Achos said, raising a curious eyebrow at Nymph as she sighed.

"There's nothing you ever want to do when we go out! Mostly I'm the one who either wants to do things or suggests things to you. Maybe you should start doing that every once in a while."

"I'm not very picky when it comes to these things. You know that," he said. Nymph suspected it was more because of the fact that even four months after his arrival in Sorami City, he was still trying to adjust to life without orders, but decided not to bring it up for the sake of retaining the light mood of the conversation.

"You really need a hobby," Nymph said, poking Achos' arm. "Going out will help you find one. I'm not trying to torture you." Achos smiled and shook his head.

"Alright, I get your point," he said in surrender. "Let's just go to the arcade and play some games."

* * *

Meanwhile, Tomoki Sakurai sat in his room reading a porn magazine out of boredom (he had no perverted plans up his sleeve today). He was anticipating for when Achos and Nymph would get back so he could (yet again) poke fun at the two angeloids for "going out on a date". They weren't actually dates, but a little while after the defeat of Alkaios, Nymph decided that she and Achos should go out occasionally so that they could do more things together. You could call them "friendly dates", if you wanted. Whatever the case, Tomoki making fun of them for it usually ended up badly. Even so, the oblivious idiot still hadn't learned his lesson after about four months of doing the same damn thing.

About two and a half hours had passed since Achos and Nymph's departure before they came back. They were both expecting Tomoki to arrive at any minute. And sure enough, he did.

"Oh, hey guys," he greeted innocently, an almost sinister smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Hey pervert," Achos said dismissively, taking off his shoes and socks. It was then that he could hear Tomoki chuckling in an evil manner.

_That's new, _he thought to himself. _What has he, a new sick and perverted plan?_

"What's so funny?" Nymph asked, her voice indicating that she was slightly irritated.

"So, did you two do anything _interesting _today?" Tomoki asked, his voice no longer displaying mock-innocence. Both angeloids recognized his tone as being one of perversion, and taking the hint that Tomoki brought up, the two turned a deep shade of crimson.

"What the hell are you talking about, pervert?!" Nymph exclaimed with embarrassment. It was then that another angeloid, Ikaros, wandered into the hallway, watching the scene a fair distance away from the three.

"I don't know. I just thought that since you guys are away from a long time, you'd decide to-" Achos didn't let Tomoki finish. He stepped forward and gave Tomoki a hard chop that would have made Sohara Mitsuki proud, sending him flying across the hallway and into the wall on the opposite end. As he looked up, he noticed that Ikaros, the girl he still harbored feelings for, was standing in the middle of the hallway, fixing him with her emotionless gaze that had a rather deadly air to it. He gulped nervously, and thought:

_Oh shit._

Outside, a faint boom could be heard from inside Tomoki's house.

* * *

"She really needs to stop doing that," Achos muttered, sitting in Tomoki's room with Nymph. "I'm a friend, not an enemy."

"You know Alpha's protective of her master. It's normal that she'd do that," Nymph said. Achos scoffed.

"Yeah, as if you or the others get blown up for beating up that pervert," he said bitterly.

"Look, I'll talk to Alpha about it, okay?" Nymph said, her voice soft and soothing. Achos said nothing and simply nodded in response. Unbeknownst to him as he stared at the floor, Nymph looked at Achos intently. She knew that he was still in love with Ikaros, and he was often troubled by his feelings for her. Nymph could see through his thoughtful eyes that he was thinking about Ikaros now. Nymph deeply cared for Achos, and hated to see him upset. After all, he seldom expressed positive emotions, and usually had none to express. To see him only express negative emotions made Nymph sad. She believed that he deserved to be happy after all the emotional pain he'd suffered as a creation of the Synapse.

Sometimes it seemed like he was never happy.

* * *

When night came, Achos sat on the roof of Tomoki's house, staring up at the moon in the sky. For a while he sat there alone, in thought, before he heard footsteps coming from behind him. He looked behind to see Nymph standing on the opposite slant of the roof.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked.

Achos looked back up at the moon and said, "Sure." Nymph sat down beside Achos at the top of the roof, also looking up at the sky in thought. Her thoughts eventually wandered to Achos once again, and her gaze shifted over to him. She remembered how four months ago, Achos nearly took his own life in order to save his friends and the people of Sorami City. Nymph's mind was occasionally plagued with these memories, and it made her shudder to think about it. She was concerned for his well-being, and didn't want him to suffer physically anymore than he seemed to be suffering mentally. She didn't want him to get hurt, not the way he did last time. There had been a long moment of silence before Nymph decided to speak up.

"Hey, Omega?"

"Yeah?" Achos said, turning to look at Nymph and meeting her gaze.

"I'm really worried about you. You almost died when you stopped Sigma, and-"

"You don't want me to do it again?" Achos finished in anticipation. Nymph shook her head.

"Not just that... I want you to _promise _me that you won't do it again," she said firmly.

"But what if it needs to be done?" Achos asked. "What if any of us has to do something like that again?"

"Please, Omega," Nymph begged. "Just promise me." Achos sighed through his nose, momentarily staring at his hand. Then he looked up at her and nodded.

"I promise," he said. Nymph wasn't entirely convinced that Achos was telling the truth. She held out her pinkie finger to Achos, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Pinkie-promise?" Nymph asked. Achos hesitated for a moment before nodding again and wrapping his pinkie around hers.

"I pinkie-promise," he said as both of them shook their pinkies before breaking them apart from one another's grasp. Both of them then continued to look up at the star-lit sky.

And as Nymph did, she hoped that Achos would hold true to his promise should the time come when they had to face another threat.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hey guys. Sorry for the long wait. To be honest, I got kind of lazy over the past week.**

* * *

Achos was in deep thought the next morning while everyone was eating breakfast. He made a promise to Nymph, a promise he had to keep should he have wanted Nymph to be happy. He knew how much she cared about him (although not to the point where he was aware that she loved him), and he didn't like the thought of leaving her knowing that he did so intentionally. However, the promise made things complicated. What if there was a threat in Sorami City that was too powerful for the angeloids to stop? What if a sacrifice needed to be made?

* * *

_"I'm really worried about you. You almost died when you stopped Sigma, and-"_

_"You don't want me to do it again?"_

_"Not just that... I want you to _promise _me that you won't do it again."_

_"But what if it needs to be done? What if any of us has to do something like that again?"_

_"Please, Omega. Just promise me."_

_A momentary pause._

_"I promise."_

_"Pinkie-promise?"_

_Another pause._

_"I pinkie-promise."_

* * *

Achos raised his pinkie finger to his face, staring at it.

_Nymph... _he thought as he repeated their conversation over and over in his mind.

"Hey! Achos!" Achos was quickly snapped out of his trance, lowering his finger quickly and looking up, noticing that everyone around the table was staring at him in confusion. Well, except for Nymph. She knew exactly what he was thinking about the moment he raised that finger.

"I need you to help Ikaros with the groceries," Tomoki said, saying nothing more than that. Achos was hesitant, before nodding.

"No problem," he said in response.

* * *

Sometime later, the two angeloids were in the Town Square, bags in hand as they prepared to head back to Tomoki's house.

"So, do we have everything on the list?" Achos asked. Ikaros nodded.

"Yes, we do," she responded.

"Okay then. Let's head home." The two remained silent for a while as they walked side by side through the Square. The tension between the two that had been present since the first time they met had lowered by now, but it was still present nonetheless.

"Hey, Ikaros...?" Achos asked gently. "Can I ask you a question?" Ikaros turned and looked at him curiously for a moment before nodding.

"Sure," she responded. Despite the fact that it was usually monotonous, Achos loved Ikaros' voice whenever he heard it. There was no obvious emotion in it, but Achos found that in some way that it was still gentle, and soothing. It took a moment in order for the black-haired angeloid to regain his composure before he spoke once again.

"Let's just say that..." Achos paused for a moment, drawing in a slightly shaky breath. The situation he was about to bring up was quite painful for him to talk about, but he was still curious about Ikaros' opinion.

"You made a promise to your master," he continued. "Not to die. On his orders. But, what if... your master's life was in danger, and you needed to sacrifice your own to save it. Would you keep your promise, or... would you break it?" Ikaros looked at him in surprise, the two now having stopped walking. She then looked at the ground in thought. Meanwhile, Achos looked intently at the pink-haired angeloid, waiting for an answer with a slight fear of what she'd say.

Ikaros continued to look at the ground when she said: "I'd break my promise." Achos winced slightly at the answer.

"I value his life more than my own, and would do anything for his protection. Even if it means my death." Then Achos looked down at the ground, not wanting Ikaros to see his sadness. It was a while before he continued walking, with Ikaros eventually following behind him.

_I love you..._

Words unspoken, words he wished to speak. Words he wished to say to her.

* * *

A while later, the two angeloids continued to walk through the Square. There were many people on either side of them, travelling in and out. The two didn't bother paying any attention...

Until a figure in a black hoodie approached them.

Achos narrowed his eyes in confusion, curious as to why this person was walking directly towards them instead of walking around them. Ikaros looked at him, noticing Achos' expression.

"Is there something wrong, Achos?" she asked. At that moment, a purple blade ejected out of the right sleeve of the figure's hoodie overtop of his wrist and hand and extending slightly past that. Achos immediately pushed Ikaros to the side as the person dashed forward and sliced at him, cutting Achos' right arm as he leapt off to the opposite side. People around them were frightened at the scene they were witnessing, and either ran off or watched from a distance. As the figure ran off, Achos dropped his bags and gave chase. Ikaros, after picking up the bags, followed after him, disregarding the shocked people around her as she extended her wings and took off a short distance into the sky, flying above the Square.

Both Achos and the figure pushed past unaware people during their pursuit, Achos trying not to let his target get away. However, the figure ejected his blade again, turning around and slicing at Achos. He narrowly avoided the strike as he ducked, but when he turned around, the person did as well and landed a hard side kick into his chest and sending Achos into the ground. When Achos got up, holding his chest in pain, he couldn't find the figure in the mass of people around him. Shortly after, Ikaros descended to the ground by Achos' side.

"Are you alright?" she asked, concern slightly evident in her voice. Achos nodded, breathing heavily.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he responded. The two remained silent for a moment. They both wondered who their attacker was.

Then Achos turned to Ikaros and said, "Come on. Let's go." She nodded, and both of them ascended into the sky, quickly heading home.

* * *

"Bullshit," Tomoki said, his voice indicating boredom.

"Aw!" Astraea whined, picking up the cards stacked in the middle of the living room table in front of them. "I thought you wouldn't know this time!" Tomoki shook his head.

"You're a bad liar," Tomoki remarked. "You can tell every time you're lying!"

"Don't be a dick," Sohara growled, hitting Tomoki over the head with a chop as she sat on her knees beside him, also playing the game. Nymph and Chaos sat in unoccupied spaces around the table, Nymph (as usual) eating her snacks as she watched.

"Two Kings," Sohara said, placing two cards in the centre. Suddenly, the group heard the door open, and eventually they saw Ikaros and Achos appear in the entrance way, Achos holding his chest.

"Are you guys okay? What happened?" Sohara asked as she stood up, the others doing the same (with the exception of Chaos).

"We were attacked at the Square," Achos responded, grunting in pain. Sohara then walked over to him and examined the cut on his arm.

"We should get that cleaned up," she said as she looked at it.

"What about you, Ikaros?" Tomoki asked.

"She's fine," Achos responded. "She wasn't attacked. Now that you mention it... it seems like the person didn't pay much attention to Ikaros."

"Do you think someone's targeting you?" Tomoki asked almost immediately afterward. Achos thought for a moment.

"I don't know who would," he answered, "but it's possible. For what reason I'd be targeted, I don't know."

"It's possible that this 'person' is an angeloid," Nymph said suddenly, everyone turning to look at her as she brought up the theory. "It could have been sent here to retrieve Omega and bring him back to the Synapse." There was bitterness in her voice, as she suspected that Minos might have been behind the attack. Everyone realized that this was a very likely possibility, and everyone else began to fear for Achos.

"We have to protect him," Nymph stated firmly to Ikaros and Astraea. "We can't let this person hurt Achos."

"I'll be fine, Nymph," Achos insisted, not wanting his friends to get hurt because of him.

"No, you won't," she said sharply. "This person is out to get you and probably won't stop until you're either dead or captured! We can't let that happen to you."

"I can take care of myself just fine on my own!" he snapped. Everyone else stared at him in shock. The angeloids were offering him their protection and here he was, being unappreciative of it. Achos took several deep breaths, then sighed. Without a word, he turned and headed out of the room.

"Achos, wait!" Sohara called out, chasing after him. The others could hear her voice faintly as she disappeared behind the entrance way. "We still have to get your cut patched up!"

Silence.

"Make it quick," came Achos' dull reply from the hallway. The others couldn't believe it.

It was as if he reverted back to his cold, dark, and hostile personality.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Once again, I would like to apologize for the wait. The last thing I want you guys thinking is that I'll end up not completing this story. Don't worry, I fully intend to finish it.**

* * *

Tensions were high and directed at Achos as they all sat in the living room eating lunch. No words were exchanged between anyone as they quietly ate, Achos beginning to feel regretful for his actions. The others (with the exception of Chaos) were still feeling quite bitter towards him for them, not being able to believe that he declined help that his "sisters" had willingly offered.

However, that would soon be the least of his worries.

Since he'd begun eating, Achos continued to stare at the plate in front of him as he ate. However, as he was about to eat another bit of his food, he noticed out of the corner of his eyes that the lighting in the room had changed, the area being lit with an ominous red glow. When he looked up, he saw an image that horrified him.

In front of him sat the same figure that attacked him earlier that day. And all around, his friends had gone pale and were slightly slumped forward. Their faces were twisted into expressions of what looked like either shock or horror, their eyes black all around with the exception of their pupils, which were red. The figure chuckled lightly. A male voice.

"Hello, Achos," the person said quietly, his voice seemingly distorted. "Do you like what I set up? I thought I'd eat with all of you, and perhaps have a tea party. I also showed your friends how happy I was to join them by giving them a makeover." Achos' eyes were wide in shock, horror, and confusion. Almost like his now lifeless friends.

"Don't they look so pretty?" Achos trembled as he looked once again at the bodies gathered around the table.

"You... Why did you attack me? What have you done!? What do you want with me?!" he shouted as his eyes now displayed a new emotion: anger.

Suddenly, the image in front of Achos seemed to flicker and fade. He heard a faint voice calling out to him, and felt himself being shaken by someone. Soon, the image disappeared entirely and the living room was back to normal, his friends staring at him in worry and confusion. He turned to his right, his eyes still wide, to see Nymph with her hand gripping his shoulder.

"Omega, are you okay? Answer me!" Nymph said worriedly. However, Achos didn't answer, instead looking around the table at his friends in confusion. Angeloids couldn't sleep, therefore eliminating the possibility of them having dreams or nightmares, but...

What had he just seen?

Achos clutched the table tightly with one hand, his other placed on his head as he breathed heavily and sweated profusely.

"Achos, what happened...?" Tomoki asked quietly. It was at that moment that he stood up, said "excuse me", and left the room. The others just stared at the doorway, dumbfounded as to what had just occurred.

* * *

A few hours later, Achos sat on the roof of the house under a sunset-lit sky, unable to help himself from replaying the gruesome scene again and again in his head. He continued to sit in silence for a while before he heard a voice behind him.

"Omega...? Can we talk?" asked Nymph's soft voice.

Achos sighed, remaining silent for a moment, before saying, "Sure." Nymph then walked over to Achos, taking a seat beside him with her knees tucked into her chest and her arms wrapped around them. For a few seconds, there was a tense and awkward silence before Nymph spoke again.

"Why don't you want us to help you?" she asked, her voice slightly strained with emotional pain. This did not go unnoticed by Achos, and the guilt he felt before resurfaced and intensified slightly.

"Nymph, I'm truly sorry for the way I acted," he said, "but I can't let any of you get hurt because of me. I have to handle this on my own."

"No, you don't," Nymph countered. There was another momentary pause between the two before Achos continued to speak.

"These ties I have with all of you... they're dangerous. They compromise the way I think in certain situations, and I can't let them distract me when-" By this time, Nymph had gotten up and stood in front of Achos, her expression displaying anger.

_Smack._

Achos' head was turned to the right, a red mark now on his left cheek. There was a look of shock on his face as he felt a slight sting on that cheek. He remained still for a moment before turning his head to look back at Nymph, who lowered her left hand to her side and continued to glare at Achos. He was slightly confused as to why Nymph had just slapped him. As if she read his mind, she gave him an answer.

"Don't," she hissed, her voice rising dangerously. "Don't you _dare _use this as an excuse to break that promise you made to me!" Achos continued to look at her in surprise, replaying that night in his mind. He noticed that Nymph no longer looked angry, instead looking sad as tears visibly welled in her eyes. It was then that Achos was no longer able to look at her directly, his guilt rising once again (even though it wasn't his intention to try and break his promise). However, he didn't need to worry about that anymore as Nymph then threw herself at Achos, positioned on her knees between his legs as she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest as she cried. Achos looked momentarily surprised once again, before closing his eyes and wrapping his own arms around her back, pressing Nymph more tightly to his chest.

"I don't ever want you to leave me," she sobbed. "Please don't go... Please don't leave me..." Achos fought back against tears of his own as he listened to Nymph's pleads.

"It's okay, Nymph," he said, his voice trembling as he opened his eyes. "I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

The two angeloids later decided to go for a walk, and were now heading down an empty street. Nymph sighed contently as she walked with her eyes closed, her head pressed against Achos' right arm and her arms wrapped around it. Achos took a moment to look at the blue-haired angeloid, smiling warmly at her. However, that smile quickly disappeared when he looked up and saw _him _again. The same black hoodie with the hood pulled up to conceal himself, the same black cargo pants, and the same black shoes. Everything in black. When Achos stopped walking and stared at the figure in front of the two angeloids, Nymph opened her eyes and curiously looked at Achos before following his gaze to the stranger. She narrowed her eyes in confusion for a moment, before realization dawned on her.

"That's the person, isn't it?" Nymph asked, looking back at Achos, who nodded in confirmation. At that moment, the stranger pulled his arm back and thrust it forward, a purple blade ejecting out of it and heading towards the two. Instinctively, they both separated from each other and accelerated with their wings off to either side, narrowly avoiding the fast travelling blade as the tip of it lodged itself into the street.

"No more games. No more hiding," the stranger said in an eerily happy voice that sent shivers down the two angeloids' spines, retracting the blade and sending it back into his sleeve. Suddenly, from behind the figure came an array of blades that Nymph almost instantly recognized.

_That can't be! _she thought in horror. _That wing structure... it looks just like Epsilon's!_

Achos recognized the wing structure as well, an image of Chaos briefly flashing in his mind.

"This can't be possible," Achos said to himself as he looked at the new angeloid, who had just taken off into the sky. Achos and Nymph equipped their battle clothing and took off after the second-generation angeloid. Achos quickly caught up to him and activated Nemesis, swinging it at the mysterious angeloid only to have it held in place by the array of blades that converged on the sword.

"Who are you?" Achos asked, his voice strained as he tried to push against the weapons.

"Type Upsilon, Keiro," he answered. The two continued to stand off, Nymph watching them a fair distance away.

"Now, let's be patient," Keiro said, bringing out the blades and pushing Achos' arm off to the side, unsteadying him for a moment. "I don't want you to suffer just yet." In that moment, Keiro seized the opportunity to land a blow to Achos' chest, making him skyrocket towards the ground. After watching Achos collide into a nearby street below, Nymph turned to attack Keiro, only to find that he was no longer there.

_What? Where did he go? _she thought as she pressed to fingers to her ear in an attempt to track Keiro's signal. However, she couldn't detect it. She realized that something was jamming her radar, and gave up on searching for Keiro to go and help Achos. She flew over to the street where he was, descending to the ground to help him up. With slight difficulty, she slung Achos' arm over her shoulder and stood him up from his lying position on the ground.

"Did he get away...?" Achos groaned weakly as he looked at Nymph, who nodded in response. She then looked up at the sky where Keiro should have been.

"Yeah. But at least you're still alive."


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hey guys.**

**I cannot seem to stress how sorry I am for making you wait; recently I was sick and couldn't get myself to type up a new chapter for this story. However, the lack of reviews I've been receiving is not helping me retain my once high motivational level in terms of writing this story, so don't forget to leave a review telling me what you think of the story so far.**

**Spoiler warning for those who haven't read chapter 74 in the manga.**

* * *

"So, you were attacked again by that person... and he's an _angeloid?_" Sohara asked in disbelief, Nymph having just explained the events that transpired mere minutes earlier. Achos simply nodded in response as Nymph laid him back on a wall for him to sit against, as he was still slightly weak from his and Nymph's encounter with Keiro.

"And it's becoming more clear that he's just after Omega," she said bitterly. "He didn't bother with me at all."

"And you just let him get away?" Tomoki asked incredulously. Nymph closed her eyes and shook her head, irritation evident in her expression.

"Of course we didn't just 'let him get away', dumbass."

"You said ass!" Astraea loudly interrupted. Nymph ignored her and continued her explanation.

"I told you, I looked away for a moment because Omega was knocked into the ground and by the time I looked back he was already gone, and my radar was jammed so I couldn't follow him since I didn't _know _where he went." There was a long moment of silence.

"So what do we do?" Sohara asked, breaking the silence. Nymph sighed and shrugged.

"I don't know," she answered. "I'm not sure there's much we can do. We can't track Upsilon and he can strike at any time. The only thing we _can _do is stay alert and keep an eye out for him." There was another moment of silence. For a while.

"I'm gonna see if I can get Sugata to help," Tomoki said, heading out of the living room to retrieve his cell phone from his room. "I wanna know what that asshole in the sky wants with Achos."

"Wait!" Nymph called out, stopping Tomoki at the entrance way. "Tomoki, you should know that the last time we went to Sugata for help, he wasn't willing to help us. I don't think he wants to go back to the Synapse after... you know..."

"I don't care! He's getting his sorry ass up there whether he likes it or not," he snapped, walking out of the room and leaving the others staring open-mouthed in surprise at Tomoki's sudden outburst. It didn't seem like there was any way to stop him now.

* * *

Meanwhile, Eishirou Sugata stood by the riverside, fishing in silence. However, he wasn't there alone.

"Hey Sugata," Mikako Satsukitane chimed in from behind him. "We haven't seen Tomoki and his friends in a while, have we? I kind of feel like paying them a visit."

"If you really want to, we could go see them after I get us some fish to eat," Sugata responded flatly.

"Alright then. I might as well take a nap in the meantime," she said, retreating inside Sugata's tent, leaving him to fish in silence once more. About a minute later, he heard his cell phone ringing. As he reached down to his pocket to retrieve it, he suddenly stopped as he heard a soft thud behind him.

_That must be one of the angeloids, _he thought. As he turned to look behind him, he narrowed his eyes in confusion as he saw his visitor. The figure wore a hood that concealed its face, but behind it was an array of purple blades that he referenced to another specific angeloid.

"Chaos...?" he wondered aloud as the blades folded up behind the figure.

"No. I'm not Chaos," the figure said, Sugata widening his eyes in surprise at the male voice. The stranger then ejected a blade from his sleeve.

"I'm type Upsilon. Keiro."

* * *

Tomoki soon reappeared in the living room, leaning up against a wall as he turned on his cell phone.

"He'd better pick up the phone," he muttered to himself as he called Sugata. He spent a while waiting, his phone pressed against his ear as he waited for an answer. A few seconds later, the ringing stopped and he got one. But it wasn't one he was expecting.

"Tomoki," Sugata said, his tone not a questioning one, but one filled with urgency.

"Sugata? What's wrong?" Tomoki asked, almost instantly getting worried about what was happening. Everyone else in the room was starting to get worried, too.

"There's... another angeloid... here... Mikako's in danger... get here quickly..."

"Sugata, what's going on?!" Tomoki demanded. However, he didn't get a response as the call suddenly ended. He looked at everyone else and said, "Sugata and the President are in danger. We have to get to Sugata's house, now!"

* * *

Tomoki, Sohara, and the angeloids soon arrived at the riverside, and what they saw from their aerial view made them gasp.

"No... Not again," Tomoki breathed. Keiro was there with his array of blades out and three of them being put to use: one was lodged in the ground and pierced through Sugata's phone, another was pointed at Mikako's throat, and the last one...

Pierced right through Sugata's back as he lay face-down on the ground.

The group descended a fair distance away, shocked at the scene in front of them. Keiro turned his head to look at them, his body remaining otherwise still.

"I knew you would show up," he said quietly, however there was something different about his voice this time around. It was completely void of the insanity it once had, and now only displayed seriousness. Meanwhile, the group couldn't produce any words. They didn't know what to say or what to do.

"This is only the beginning, Achos," Keiro hissed. "You are to return to the Synapse immediately. As the days go by, more people will die. It's up to you how many bodies you'll see in the time that you take thinking about the choice you want to make." Achos shook where he stood.

"You... _monster!_" he screamed, activating Nemesis. "I'll _KILL _YOU!" However, as Achos accelerated forward, Keiro withdrew his blades and quickly took off into the air, narrowly avoiding Achos' strike. As Achos then fell to his knees, trying to comprehend the whole situation, the rest of the group rushed to Sugata's aid, turning him over so that he faced up.

"Hey, Sugata, stay with me," Tomoki murmured as he held him in his arms. But Tomoki got no response from him.

"Sugata!" Now Tomoki was shaking him desperately, tears flowing freely from his eyes. The others looked on sorrowfully. They were all powerless to do anything.

"We can't bring him back..." Tomoki sobbed. "We can't bring him back anymore." The group then heard shuffling off to their left and saw Achos standing up and turning his head skyward, seemingly in thought. They were curious about what was on his mind, given the situation. Meanwhile, Mikako trudged over to the group, a sad smile on her face as she knelt beside Sugata's body and gently took it from Tomoki's grasp, brushing Sugata's hair softly. The group watched Mikako sadly, knowing she was the closest to Sugata out of all of them. While she didn't express it, they couldn't imagine the loss she was feeling in that moment.

"I guess this is goodbye," Achos said quietly, making all the heads in the group- with the exception of Mikako's- turn towards him as he extended his wings. However, as he was about to take off, he felt a hand grip his wrist tightly. Ikaros'. Achos searched her eyes for an explanation, but she merely shook her head.

"We won't let you leave, Achos," Tomoki stated firmly. "This isn't your fault. I won't let you go back to the Synapse. I'll go as far as becoming your damn _master _if that's what it takes." Achos momentarily widened his eyes in surprise, then simply nodded.

"Alright. I'll stay," he said, and Ikaros let go of his wrist. Then, there was silence once more as the group turned back to Mikako, who was still knelt by Sugata's side.

"If you don't mind," she said after a while, "I'd like to be alone... with Sugata..." Tomoki nodded understandingly and turned to everyone else.

"Come on. Let's go," he said. Ikaros grabbed hold of Tomoki, Nymph grabbed hold of Sohara, and then the group took off into the sky. Achos stayed on the ground, however, looking at the group in thought.

_I don't want any of them to get hurt... _he thought to himself. _Should I really stay? _He was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard Nymph calling out to him and saying "Come on!", the group hovering in the sky and waiting for him. He nodded in response and joined the group in the sky as they all headed home.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I deeply apologize for the extremely long wait. You guys don't know how close I was to deciding not to continue this story... but, I've decided to continue with it for the sake of anyone who still wants to read this. Don't worry, I won't make you wait another month for the next chapter.****  
**

**Thanks for bearing with me here, guys.**

**REVIEW RESPONSES:  
**FF Guest Ryan: I'm sorry, but I don't plan on including the Harpies in this story. They weren't part of this story's plan to begin with.  
FF Guest Arsenal 413: Yes, Upsilon's weapon is somewhat a reference to the hidden blade from Assassin's Creed. Also, I haven't been busy with exams. I've just been putting this off for a (long) while because I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue with this story.****

**[SPOILER WARNING, DON'T READ THE REST OF THE BOLD TEXT IF YOU HAVE NOT READ CHAPTER 74 OF THE MANGA]**

**In response to a question that was asked by an anonymous FF guest, yes, Sugata dies in chapter 74 in the manga before being revived.**

* * *

A day had passed since Sugata's death, and school had been cancelled for the week because of it. Tomoki sat quietly in his room with Achos, both of them contemplating on the whole situation that the angeloids were now faced with.

"This happened because of me," Achos muttered quietly to himself.

"Achos, you know that there was nothing you could do," Tomoki said. "Don't be so hard on yourself for something you couldn't prevent."

"But now I _do _have a chance to prevent it, and you won't let me. As the days go by, more people will die, and people close to you will probably be among them. Do you really want that to happen?" Tomoki now looked frustrated as he considered this.

"We'll find a way," he said. "I'm not letting you go back to the Synapse just so you can be locked back up." Achos remained silent for a moment.

"It's better than letting innocent people pay for it, isn't it?"

* * *

Outside, it rained heavily. Mikako, who was wearing a black suit, skirt and heels, stood in front of Sugata's tombstone in a cemetery, holding an umbrella over her head. She had a sad expression, her usual smile absent from her face. The one thing on her mind at that moment was how she wasn't able to say goodbye to her childhood friend.

"I'm so sorry, Sugata," Mikako murmured, her voice shaky as she did so.

"You _really _miss him, don't you?" came a voice from behind her. Her face hardening into a scowl as she recognized the voice, she dropped her umbrella and pulled out a pistol, turning to fire at Sugata's murderer. As she squeezed the trigger several times, Keiro merely unfolded the array of blades tucked behind him and brought the two halves together, blocking every bullet fired. Mikako fired once again, only to find that the pistol's magazine was empty. Before she got a chance to reload, Keiro was already in front of her, mere inches away from her face. She widened her eyes as she felt something sharp pierce through her chest, and then began to choke as she was lifted off the ground.

"You should be grateful to me," Keiro hissed, his tone serious but his words displaying his more psychotic personality. "Now you can go see your friend again." Mikako's struggle soon came to an end as she stopped making noise and her hands dropped from the blade, hanging lifelessly at her sides as her eyes closed shut.

* * *

Back at Tomoki's house, Nymph suddenly rushed into Tomoki's room with Ikaros and Astraea, looking unusually panicked.

"Nymph? What's wrong?" Tomoki asked.

"Omega, you need to come with us," she said urgently. "I just picked up Upsilon's signal again."

* * *

A few minutes later, the four angeloids arrived at the cemetery. Their eyes widened in shock as they witnessed Mikako's lifeless body impaled on Keiro's blade.

"I knew you would all show up again," Keiro said in a low voice. He then threw Mikako's body off to the side. "This is another warning, in case you haven't guessed, Achos. Do what is asked of you and no one else will pay for your defiance. Return to the Synapse, or you know what will happen." With that, Keiro skyrocketed and disappeared into the dark gray clouds above. The other angeloids then headed over to Mikako's body, briefly looking at her in dismay before Astraea took the liberty of hoisting her on her back. Her mentor. Her teacher.

Dead.

"Let's go," Astraea said quietly, taking off into the sky with the others following behind her.

* * *

Tomoki leaned against a wall in the living room, tapping his foot anxiously as he waited for the angeloids to return. Sohara, who was in the room with him, was getting worried for her childhood friend. Tomoki had informed her of the situation, but she didn't want him to worry so much.

"Tomoki, I'm sure the angeloids will be fine," Sohara soothed.

"It's not _them _I'm worried about," he said in a stressed voice. "I'm worried about who Keiro might have killed today." Almost as if on cue, the two heard the front door open and close. Soon, the angeloids walked into the room, Astraea coming in last and laying Mikako's body on the ground.

"Oh no..." Sohara gasped as Tomoki walked over to the other side of the table and knelt by Mikako, examining the blood soaked wound on her chest. Achos meanwhile frowned. He knew this was going to happen. It was inevitable. There were going to be none of those bullshit delays that gave the good guys time to stop the bad guy.

This was serious.

"I told you, Tomoki..." Achos muttered.

"Now is not the time, Achos!" Tomoki snapped, slightly startling Achos and the others as his eyes widened in anger. He then refocused his attention on Mikako's body. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was just so frustrated. He just didn't know what to do.

"We have to figure out how to stop Keiro," Tomoki said.

"Even if we wanted to, we can't," Nymph responded. "He's like a ghost. There's no way to find his signal because he's jamming our radar, and judging from the past two incidents, he doesn't reveal his signal until he's killed another person." Tomoki inhaled and exhaled deeply through his nose as he rubbed his forehead. He was becoming even more distraught.

How much longer would it be before another person suffered the same fate?


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Hey guys. Here's the next chapter, as promised (even though there was still a significant wait time). Hope you enjoy.**

**In response to a review from Archenoid: Glad you're enjoying the story. Also, I don't have any exams this month. I'm not even at the point yet where I'm supposed to write them (yet).**

* * *

The unfortunate truth was, it didn't take long for Keiro to set another target in his sights.

A few hours later on the same day, Hiyori Kazane stood outside her house in the backyard with her angeloid outfit on, sweeping up some leftover leaves with a broom as she thought about what she'd heard recently from Tomoki. He called her the day before to inform her of Sugata's death, and he called her today to both let her know about Mikako's death and ask her to be careful. Her cheeks warmed up at the last thought and a small smile crept onto her lips, but a solemn look returned to her face and her blush faded as she thought about the predicament altogether.

_I just hope that Tomoki will be okay, _she thought to herself as she continued to idly sweep. That was when she suddenly heard a voice from behind her.

"Hello, sweetheart," the voice said in a very sickeningly sweet voice. Hiyori widened her eyes in surprise and turned behind her to find a figure dressed in black. Curious as to who her new visitor was, she suddenly recalled what Tomoki had said to her during their previous two phone calls.

* * *

_"Listen, Hiyori, I've got some bad news," Tomoki had said yesterday._

_With a worried look on her face as she sat on her bed, holding her phone to her ear, she tentatively asked, "What is it, Tomoki?" There was a pause on the other end before he responded._

_"Sugata was just killed by his home." Hiyori's eyes widened. She was stunned. She couldn't produce any words for a response._

_"It was an angeloid who did it," Tomoki concluded._

* * *

_Then, today, just mere hours ago, Tomoki called Hiyori again following Mikako's death._

_"It was the same angeloid," Tomoki told her. "Listen, I'm worried about you. This angeloid might come after you too. Will you promise me that you'll keep yourself safe?" Hiyori's mouth opened in surprise as she gasped silently._

_'He's worried about me?' she thought as she replayed the words in her head._

_I'm worried about you._

_Her face turned a light shade of crimson as she struggled to regain her composure._

_"Hiyori?" Tomoki asked over the phone, snapping her out of her reverie. _

_She cleared her throat and silently responded, "I promise."_

_"Good," Tomoki said. "I'll see you later. And take care of yourself." After he said that, the call ended._

* * *

Hiyori trembled slightly and gripped her broom as she realized who this person was.

"How about we play a little game?" Keiro said, ejecting a blade from his sleeve. "I'm thinking we should play tag. And guess what?" Hiyori trembled even more as his voice changed to a darker one when he spoke his next two words:

"I'm it."

* * *

"Two deaths is more than enough, Tomoki!" Achos shouted. The two boys stood off in Tomoki's room, in the middle of a fierce argument. "Keiro isn't going to stop there, and you know it! Stop pretending as if we have time, because we don't!"

"At this point, I don't even give a shit about what you think, Achos," he shot back in a much lower tone. "You're staying here, end of story."

"I don't understand why you find me so much more important than your friends," Achos said irritably. "Why won't you just let me go!?"

"Aren't you my friend too?" Tomoki asked sharply, causing Achos to pause for a moment.

_I'm... his friend...? _he thought in disbelief, still unable to produce a response.

"You're my friend, Achos," Tomoki confirmed, speaking in a much softer tone than before. "And 'my friends' are your friends, too. You can't just turn your back on them like that. Minos is _evil. _Who knows what he could be intending to do with you when you arrive back at the Synapse? Something tells me he's going to want you to suffer before he even _thinks _about killing you, if that's at all his intention. I won't let you go back and find out." After a while, Achos' surprised facial features relaxed, and he nodded at Tomoki.

"Thank you, Tomoki," he said. "But..." Achos didn't get time to finish as Ikaros and Astraea walked into the room from one side of the doorway, while Nymph walked in from the other. Unbeknownst to the two boys, the other 3 angeloids were standing outside of the room, listening in on the conversation.

"Guys, we have a problem," Nymph stated urgently.

"What is it?" Achos asked.

"We just picked up Hiyori's signal, and it's moving fast," she responded. "It's also moving around randomly, which means she doesn't seem to be heading anywhere in particular." Achos and Tomoki's narrowed eyes suddenly widened in horror as they figured out what Nymph was trying to say, and the color from Tomoki's face was drained.

"You mean...?" he said slowly. Nymph nodded in confirmation.

"We think that Upsilon's after her."

* * *

Hiyori flew through the sky at high speed, trying to lose her pursuer. But Keiro was catching up quickly. In her desperation, she activated Demeter and came to a stand-still in the air, holding it up as it generated an orange ball that created sparks of electricity.

"Leave me alone!" Hiyori yelled as she fired a blast of energy. Reality was momentarily distorted in the area around the two angeloids, and Keiro was caught in a section of the blast radius. He gasped in surprise and pain as he experienced an unusual shift in his momentum, being thrown back as he was accelerating forward. He crash-landed into an empty road below them, tumbling backward and creating several craters in the hard cement. Hiyori stayed at her position in the sky, checking to see if Keiro was still conscious while not getting too close. However, her focus on him was momentarily thrown off as she noticed the sky rapidly turning black. When she looked back down at the street where Keiro crashed, he was gone and there was an odd purple glow around the area.

"It doesn't matter if you aren't dead," said a voice. That same disturbing voice. Hiyori turned behind her, and gasped at what she saw, a look of utter horror on her face as she recoiled from the sight.

"Because in time, _he _will be dead."

Tomoki was impaled on Keiro's wrist blade, choking on his own blood and his eyes widened in shock. Hiyori placed a hand over her mouth as a strangled sob escaped her lips.

"The one person you love will no longer be in your life. That's almost as bad as death, isn't it? You'll have nothing left." Hiyori shook slightly, then gripped her staff and held it high, generating another blast of energy. She now possessed a look of determination.

"You're lying," Hiyori hissed in an uncharacteristic tone. "Tomoki wouldn't allow himself to die. Not like this. I won't allow myself to believe that he'd let that happen to himself!" Keiro said nothing for a moment. Then he sighed.

"Alright, alright, you win..." Then the image flickered and faded, and Hiyori's surroundings returned back to normal. But then she felt something stab her through the back. Her eyes widened again, and she coughed out some blood. Demeter deactivated mid-charge.

"But I was also lying when I said it didn't matter if you weren't dead. To some degree, at least." Hiyori hadn't been able to figure out Keiro's motive in time. But in this moment, she realized that the image she saw before was used as a distraction. Keiro was still lying on the street, but he'd made it appear as if he switched positions the moment Hiyori looked away. Keiro then swung his arm off to the side, making Hiyori slide off of his wrist blade and descend to the ground. There was an unsettling thud as she made impact with the road. Keiro then made his own descent, walking slowly towards Hiyori's limp body, which lay face-down and had a small pool of blood around it. As he got closer, he noticed that she was still breathing as he looked at her face which was turned to the left, but her breaths came out slow and as a wheeze.

"Well, look at you," Keiro mocked, lifting his wrist blade above his head. "Let me help you. Let me put you out of your misery." Hiyori closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. However, Keiro stopped as he heard someone speak from behind him.

"How dare you..." hissed an angered voice. Keiro turned to see who was talking to him. He noticed that she was standing alongside 3 other angeloids.

It was Nymph.

"How _dare _you hurt my friend!?" she screamed, opening her mouth to reveal her rapidly charging attack. But when she fired Paradise Song, Keiro had already disappeared from where he was standing. Wasting no time, she and the other angeloids rushed over to Hiyori, whose life was fading at a very fast rate. They flipped over her body so she now lay face-up, and knelt by her sides.

"Hey, stay with us Hiyori. We're going to get you help!" Nymph urged, but Hiyori lifted a weak hand and lightly grasped her arm.

"It's... too late..." she whispered silently. Nymph gritted her teeth as she fought back tears that burned her eyes, and nodded sadly, granting her unspoken request. Ikaros looked grief-stricken, an emotion alongside others that she very rarely displayed.

"Tell... Tomoki... that I... love him..." It was so heart-breaking to hear Hiyori say those words, knowing that she would never be able to say them to Tomoki in person. And not long after she said them, the last of the life in her eyes disappeared, and her eyes slowly closed shut. Nymph whimpered for a moment, then she held Hiyori's head tightly against her own and cried out in sorrow, the tears she held in moments ago flowing freely from her eyes and down her cheeks. Ikaros also allowed herself to sob silently, mourning the loss of her friend.

However, Nymph didn't get much more time with Hiyori. Her body began to fade away, shattering into pieces and drifting away into the air. Nymph's eyes widened in realization and she gripped Hiyori's head even tighter.

"No, don't go..." she pleaded. "Please don't go, I beg you!" In time, Hiyori had disappeared entirely, and Nymph ended up placing her hands tightly against her chest, having nothing left of Hiyori to hold on to. She lifted her head and screamed at the heavens, words not able to describe the anguish she was feeling.

Today was truly a sad day.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Once again, I'm sorry about the wait. My final excuse for the delay between chapters is that due to my time away from the anime/manga, my dedication to writing this story has been declining a bit. Like I said before, though, I do intend on finishing the story, but the characters from the original material may gradually become out of character.**

**Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter; it's going to momentarily step away from all the tragedy that's been occurring in the past few chapters. It'll still feel a bit sad, but there won't be any death involved. It focuses a bit more on the relationship between Achos and Ikaros, which I have not touched on for some time.**

**In a response to a review from FF guest Lewamus Prime: It's not exactly about his strength, it's more about his tactics and skill. But nonetheless, he's very strong, very tactical, and very skilled. And don't worry; in time, Achos and crew will eventually jump into action to stop Keiro.**

* * *

After Nymph had informed him of the situation involving Hiyori, Tomoki began to worry immensely, and Sohara was once again at his house to try and comfort him, as well as tell him something that had been on her mind for a while.

"Tomoki, listen to me. Hiyori's going to be fine," she said as the two leaned against a wall in the living room.

"You don't know that for sure," Tomoki responded in a tone that was a bit harsher than he intended. "I just... what if she doesn't make it?"

"She'll be okay," Sohara told him. "The other angeloids are on their way to help her, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about." Tomoki considered this, then sighed heavily.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." A moment of silence passed between the two. After some contemplation, Sohara decided to tell Tomoki what she'd been thinking about.

"Hey, Tomoki..." she said, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm really worried about you, and... I don't want to lose you. You mean a lot to me." Tomoki turned his head towards Sohara, and his eyes lifted to meet hers. "Maybe Achos should go back to the Synapse." Tomoki's expression suddenly hardened, and he shook his head.

"I'm not making that an option," he stated firmly. "Did you forget about what he told us when he came here? The suffering he'd been through up there? He doesn't deserve to go through that again." Sohara bit her bottom lip, then turned away from Tomoki.

After another moment of silence, she said quietly, "Just make sure you take care of yourself."

Almost immediately after she said that, they heard the front door open. Tomoki and Sohara straightened up, slightly afraid to know what was coming next. It wasn't long before Ikaros, Nymph, Astraea and Achos walked in, with sullen looks on their faces.

"What happened?" Tomoki demanded.

"Is Hiyori...?" Sohara asked carefully. They were met with no response as the angeloids looked down at the floor. However, silence was all the response that they needed. Tomoki choked back a sob, and Ikaros lowered her head in shame, knowing that she had failed her master. Achos knew that it was all on him. Hiyori's death could have been prevented if only he had left Sorami City as was requested of him. Instead, he didn't and it resulted in one of Tomoki's close friends being killed.

"This doesn't change anything, Achos," Tomoki said shakily, without looking him in the eye. "Don't go." Achos stiffened slightly at those two words. Tomoki wasn't demanding that he stay this time. It was more of a plea, a request. Achos was torn between staying with his only friends, and going back to the Synapse to meet with an unknown fate. Truth be told, he didn't like either option. Without saying a word, he left the room, and that was when Tomoki broke down and cried.

* * *

Achos sat on the roof of the house, quietly watching the sun set. He tried to keep his mind off of the people Keiro had murdered, but images of their bodies as well as of Keiro's face kept coming back to haunt him. He held a hand to his face, sighing in frustration. Then he heard footsteps behind him, and he lowered his hand and turned his head backwards in an almost sharp manner, having expected to see Keiro standing behind him. Instead, he saw Ikaros standing there with a placid expression on her face. When he saw her, Achos immediately relaxed, and all of his worries went away.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Ikaros asked softly.

Achos shook his head gently, responding with, "Not at all." Ikaros seated herself beside him, and joined him in looking at the setting sun. Rather than being uncomfortable, there was a rather tranquil silence between the two. Achos liked it. Sitting alone with the girl he loved in peace and quiet. He suddenly felt as if there was nothing to worry about, and his mind drifted away from Keiro. He allowed a small smile to tug lightly on his lips.

And then he heard Ikaros speak.

"It wasn't your fault."

Achos' smile disappeared, and his mind was set on Keiro once more, the image of his hooded face seared into his brain. His peaceful aura crumbled away from him. The one thing he did not want to happen.

"What do you mean?" he asked in a low voice, even though he knew what Ikaros was talking about.

"Hiyori's death wasn't your fault," she clarified. "Neither were the deaths of Sugata or the President." Achos' face hardened into a look of anger and his arms tightened their grip around his knees.

"I'm tired of hearing that," he snapped. "I'm tired of your master trying to convince me that I wasn't responsible for their deaths. Sugata's death was already one too many and Keiro warned me that more would follow. I knew what I was supposed to do, but I didn't do it because your master somehow convinced me that I could stay a little longer. But I can't. You saw how he reacted when he found out that Hiyori was dead. No matter how much any of you want to deny it, you know that I can't stay here." Ikaros remained quiet for a moment, then she placed her hand on Achos' shoulder, tugging him slightly so that he would look at her.

"You're Master's friend, and our friend," she said calmly. "You mean a lot to us." Achos' expression softened, but now he had a sad look on his face.

"Is that why you've let me stay here?" he asked, his voice slightly trembling. "Because your master wanted me to stay?"

"No," Ikaros responded, a bit more quickly than Achos anticipated. "It's because _I _want you to stay." Then she leaned in and gently pressed her lips against his, kissing him for a brief moment. But as she pulled away, Achos grabbed Ikaros and hugged her tightly to his chest.

"Don't go," he pleaded, sobbing into her shoulder. "Just stay with me, please. Stay with me." After a moment of shock, Ikaros relaxed and wrapped her arms around him.

And for a while, they indeed stayed that way.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Hey guys. Here I am again with the next chapter.**

**Looking back on this story, I'd just like to apologize about how sad and depressing this story is. I know it may not be pleasant, but I've had this story planned for a very long amount of time (going back sometime when I was writing "Dark Skies") and this is how I intended for it to go. I wanted this to be in a darker atmosphere compared to the anime/manga and "Dark Skies". So, anyway, I'm really sorry about that.**

**In response to an anonymous FF guest who's been sending me offensive reviews (both of which I've deleted): Listen, if you're that upset about the characters who have been killed off, then you can go screw off. I've not appreciated the names you've called me, nor do I appreciate that you're telling me what I should do with my story. Tragedy is a part of the story which I've planned for some time; if you don't like it, then don't read the story. Simple as that.**

* * *

At night, Tomoki lay in his bed and was kept awake since he was very distraught. One of his closest friends had been killed, and now he was contemplating about Achos. He didn't want to send him off, but at the same time, he figured that it might be for the best. He just didn't know what to do. One day, some freaky creature with wings fell out of the sky, and he was bestowed with an immense amount of responsibility. Sometimes he didn't like it. This was one of those times.

_I don't even care about it being quiet anymore, _he thought to himself. _I just want my life to be peaceful again. _Suddenly, he heard the door open and he turned towards the entrance to see who it was. Slightly tense at first, he let himself relax when he found that it was just Ikaros. He noticed there was something unusual about the look on her face. It was almost as if she were running something through her mind.

"Oh, hey Ikaros," he murmured. She said nothing in response. She simply closed the door behind her and walked over to his side, sitting on her knees. Tomoki examined Ikaros closely as she stared at the floor. Something seemed to concern her, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. After what was about a minute of complete silence, Ikaros finally spoke.

"Master, can I..." she said, trailing off. Tomoki narrowed his eyes slightly, curious as to what Ikaros was going to ask. After a bit of difficulty, Ikaros gained the courage to continue the rest of her question.

"... Can I lie in bed with you tonight?" Tomoki said nothing. He just stared at her in shock. Then, very suddenly, his face turned into a bright shade of pink and he was speaking incoherently. Ikaros lowered her face in embarrassment, knowing that she shouldn't have asked the question in the first place. But then, Tomoki stopped stuttering and she could hear him sigh.

"Sure. I guess it's fine," he said. Remaining seated for a moment, Ikaros then nodded in response and slowly climbed in bed with him, and Tomoki awkwardly turned away from her. At first, he was a bit uncomfortable about the situation, but his mind ended up wandering back to Keiro and Achos and he was no longer thinking about Ikaros.

Sugata, Mikako, and Hiyori were all dead. Who was going to be next?

"Master, can I talk to you about something...?" Ikaros abruptly asked, bringing Tomoki out of his thoughts. He shifted so he was now facing Ikaros, and saw that she still had that same expression. As if something was making her worried.

"Okay. What's up?" Tomoki answered. For a while, Ikaros didn't say anything, and her gaze shifted down to her pillow.

"I'm... very worried about you, Master," she told him. This wasn't any news to Tomoki. He'd heard it from Sohara, and he was bound to hear it from Ikaros.

"I know," he responded. Ikaros continued to avoid looking Tomoki in the eye.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," she continued, her voice now strained with emotion. "You mean so much to me Master, I..." By this point, her voice was also shaky and she was choking down a sob, squeezing her eyes shut in a vain attempt to trap her tears. Tomoki looked at her in surprise, not expecting this type of reaction from her.

"I don't want... to lose you." Ikaros couldn't hold back anymore. She began to sob, and tears now flowed freely from her eyes. Hating to see her like this, Tomoki gently hugged her to his chest, patting her back.

"It's okay, don't worry," he soothed. "I'm not going anywhere." Ikaros eventually returned the embrace, but hugged him more tightly. Tomoki's eye twitched, and then both of them bulged out and he started making strangled noises.

"Too... tight..." he gasped. Hearing him, Ikaros relaxed her grip on Tomoki, and let her hand rest on his shoulder. Without saying a word, she leaned forward and pressed her lips firmly against his. Tomoki widened his eyes in shock, not having expected her to do that. But, he let himself relax and even kissed her back. After a few seconds, they slowly pulled away, and Ikaros opened her eyes and met Tomoki's gaze with a loving look.

"I love you... Master," she said to him. These were also words that Tomoki had heard. But they were also words that he'd never responded to. He opened his mouth to speak, but had a bit of difficulty as his throat kept closing up.

"I... love you... too, Ikaros..." he managed to get out. Then Ikaros did something else that was unexpected:

She gave Tomoki a small, but very sweet smile.

Unbeknownst to the two, Achos stood right outside of the doorway, listening in on the conversation. His reactor felt broken, and he gritted his teeth. He utterly despised that pain. Then he felt an ache that was all too familiar.

An ache caused by wanting to be loved by people.

_I love you..._

Words unspoken, words he wished to speak. Words he wished to say to her. Words he wished to hear from her.

Achos walked silently down the stairs, and seated himself in front of the table in the living room. Briefly remembering his life in the Synapse, Achos broke down and cried silently.

* * *

Meanwhile, Nymph sat on the roof of Sohara's house, watching the moon and patiently waiting for the sun to rise. She wanted to put an end to Keiro's killing spree while not endangering Achos' life. But she didn't know how. Like Tomoki, she just wanted everyone's lives to be peaceful again.

As she lowered her head just to stare out into nothing, something caught her eye. She looked at the street, and almost immediately tensed up at what she saw.

Keiro was standing in the middle of the street.

_What is he doing here!? _Nymph thought to herself, ascending a short distance into the sky and then accelerating towards Keiro. She threw a punch at him, but he sidestepped the attack and avoided it. Nymph wasn't about to give up though, and delivered several more attacks. She wanted this all to end here.

In a blur, Keiro dodged one after the other. After evading another one of Nymph's attacks, Keiro very unexpectedly retaliated by spinning around and ejecting his blades. They came at Nymph very quickly and she just barely avoided them, one of them making a small cut on Nymph's stomach. Wincing, she opened her mouth and took a deep breath, unleashing Paradise Song with a shout. This had an effect she wasn't expecting, though. When he was hit with the attack, Keiro was sent flying backwards. But as he did, he flickered and faded, seeming to burst into pixels. Nymph's eyes widened in shock, not quite sure of what just happened.

_Where did he go? _she thought, and then a look of horror came across her face when she came to a realization.

The Keiro she was fighting was a fake, and was meant to be a distraction.

* * *

Inside her house, Sohara was woken by the sound of Paradise Song. Sitting up, she looked at the window beside her.

"What was that...?" she asked herself. She hadn't even noticed her visitor.

"Don't worry," came a voice from in front of her. Turning her head sharply, Sohara gasped in surprise when she saw _him _standing there. He ejected a blade from his sleeve and held it close to his face, which was hidden by his hood.

"This will all end very soon."


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Honestly, almost two weeks have passed since I uploaded the last chapter and yet I have nothing to say.**

**REVIEW RESPONSES:  
EzriaForever22: I'm glad you're enjoying the story. And thank you for reviewing again, my friend.  
**

**Anonymous FF Guest (the one mentioned in the previous chapter): I understand why you're pissed. Believe me, I'm the one writing this. As for Tomoki having closure, I'm not going to say anything. It would only spoil this story's ending.  
**

**FF Guest ZenavaHd: You are most welcome. Despite my rapidly weakening connection to the anime/manga of Heaven's Lost Property, I'm still planning on finishing this for those who wish to see it completed.**

**Spoiler warning for those who haven't read chapters 73 and 77 (the last chapter) in the manga.**

* * *

At this point, Sohara was deathly terrified. _He _was here. The person- angeloid, to be more precise- who killed Sugata, Mikako, and Hiyori. And now he was here to kill her.

Out of fear and desperation, she cried, "Help!" Sohara didn't want to die now. Not again. It was too early for her. She wanted to live happily with Tomoki and their friends and the angeloids, and grow old together with Tomoki... She really didn't want to leave Tomoki... but at the same time, she knew that wasn't going to happen. Their happy little world was already torn apart by this monster. Just about all of their human friends were dead, Sohara was going to be next, and she didn't know who would follow afterwards. Astraea? Nymph? Ikaros? _Tomoki?_ That was the one thing she feared most. Tomoki's death. She cared so much about him. He was her childhood friend and long-time crush. But then a question in her head made her momentarily doubt the happy reality that she wanted to live in.

_Does he care about me the way I care about him?_

"It's no use," Keiro hissed. "No one's going to save you. You're on your own." Then, Sohara began to panic even more when Keiro started to take slow steps toward her, his blade still lifted by his face in an eerily menacing manner. She very quickly backed away from him, only to bump into the wall behind her. She had nowhere to run. She was trapped like a rat. Breathing rapidly and heavily, she had nothing to do but to wait for Keiro to get close to her. And when he did, he brought the blade away from his face and lifted it above his head, not intending to waste any time.

However, Keiro was suddenly interrupted when part of the roof violently caved in, causing pieces of rubble to fall on Keiro's head and making him stumble backwards. Shrouded by the dust cloud in the room was a mysterious second figure that stood behind Keiro, who was a bit shorter than him. The figure seemed to hover in the air, and it proceeded to wrap its arms around Keiro's neck, doing its best to strangle him. The smoke soon cleared and Sohara realized that it was Nymph, coming to her rescue.

_Oh, thank God, _she thought, standing up but still bracing herself against the wall with a terrified look on her face.

"Sohara, go!" Nymph shouted, squeezing Keiro's throat with her arms as tightly as possible. Sohara didn't have time to do anything, though, as Nymph was suddenly pushed into the wall behind her after Keiro unfolded his "wings".

_I'm going to have to deal with this pest first, _Keiro thought as he forced several of his sharp-tipped appendages towards Nymph. He managed to pin her to the wall, forcing out a cry of pain from her. One blade managed to strike her right shoulder, and another pierced through the left side of her chest, close to where her reactor was.

"Nymph!" Sohara cried, rushing toward Keiro without thinking. Through her pain, Nymph's eyes widened in shock, bewildered as to what Sohara was planning on doing.

"Sohara, _no!_" Nymph screamed, but at this point there wasn't any turning back for her. Sohara did the same thing Nymph was doing earlier and lunged at Keiro, choking him and making him back up, which forced the blades away from and out of Nymph's body. She was temporarily seized by a coughing fit, but forced herself to stand up to try and help Sohara.

"You downers are nothing but scum...!" Keiro managed to get out before whipping his head backwards and hitting Sohara in the face with such force that she collapsed against the wall she was previously on. In his agitation, he swiped the flat end of one of his blades across Nymph's stomach to keep her away, slamming her back into the wall, and then turned to Sohara. With a shout, he launched another one right at her.

"**NO!**" Nymph cried out, a scream that would have made almost anyone's blood run cold. Sohara offered no resistance. The force of the attack made her too weak to. However, she didn't die immediately; she was in extreme pain but was in too much shock to move. The most she could do was grit her teeth while a thin stream of blood trickled down her bottom lip and chin. The utter rage Nymph was feeling couldn't simply be put into words. She tried to attack Keiro, but by the time she could hit him, he had already retracted the blade he had put to use and skyrocketed through the hole in the roof. Subsequently, Tomoki, the angeloids and Daedalus rushed into the room, having heard the commotion.

But they very quickly realized that they had arrived too late.

Nymph was by Sohara's side, silently and constantly pleading for her to stay awake. Sohara's head lay limply against Nymph's chest, her eyes were lidded and her breathing was very shallow. Tomoki, her oldest friend, stood there in complete shock.

_No... not her... _he thought. The "real" Sohara, Daedalus, was right beside him, but it wasn't the same to be faced with the prospect of losing the Sohara he'd known for almost his entire life. Daedalus, meanwhile, simply kept a grim expression. She knew how hard this was going to be for Tomoki.

There weren't even final words. She just didn't have the strength for them. In a few seconds, Sohara's eyes gently closed shut and her breathing came to a halt after a weak exhale. Afterwards, her body began to slowly fade away. A painful reminder of Hiyori's death.

Nymph began to sob loudly, mourning the loss of another friend. She was also crying because she had failed to protect Sohara. She had the chance to get her out of harm's way, but she failed to do that. She failed Sohara, herself, and most of all, Tomoki. He himself had fallen to his knees and began to cry, ignoring those who stood beside him. The grief that came from knowing that Sohara was dead was overwhelming, and he just couldn't take it. Achos watched him silently with a look of pity, knowing that he'd caused him even more emotional pain.

Eventually, Sohara's body had completely disappeared and Nymph was once again left holding her hands tightly to her chest as she cried. After briefly shifting his gaze to her, Achos stared at the floor, his expression hardening.

_I'm not having any more of this, _he thought.

_Tomorrow, it ends._

* * *

The next day, everyone ate their breakfast in complete silence. The atmosphere had truly gotten very grim recently. It used to be lively, with people talking and joking and laughing together. Now, the mood was just... dead.

And everyone knew full well that there wasn't a way to revive it.

Achos suddenly stopped eating, pausing to simply stare at his food as he thought about something. Nymph looked up from her food and noticed the spaced-out look on his face. Immediately, she had a very bad feeling about what he was thinking. As if to confirm it, Achos dropped his cutlery and abruptly left the room. All eyes except for Tomoki's quickly turned to him, wondering what he was doing.

"You don't think he's going to...?" Astraea asked, prompting all the angeloids (with the exception of Chaos, who just looked on curiously) to stand up.

"Let's go," Nymph said, leading the other two angeloids out of the room with Daedalus following behind them in her small hovercraft.

* * *

Outside, Achos stood silently in front of the house, looking up at the sky.

_I guess this is it, then... _he thought to himself. _I've waited for far too long to do this. _Extending his wings, Achos prepared to take off, but was stopped by a voice from behind him.

"Don't do this, Omega!" Nymph shouted, making him turn to look at the three angeloids and Daedalus who stood in front of the doorway.

"You know I have to, Nymph," Achos responded. "Enough people have died already because of me."

"It wasn't your fault," Ikaros said, repeating the words she said the day before. But Achos was having none of it this time.

"Stop saying that!" he shouted, stunning Ikaros into silence. His angered expression softened when he noticed her giving him a sad look. "Please, Ikaros, for your master's sake. You have to let me go." That grabbed Ikaros' attention, and it didn't take much time before her expression returned to its regularly placid one, and she nodded her agreement. Nymph visibly grimaced, but didn't allow her mind to go astray. Astraea was also not about to let Achos leave.

"We're not letting you go, Achos. That's final!" she declared, and after activating Chrysaor and her shield, she and Nymph entered battle stances, prepared for a fight. Achos simply stared at them for a moment, then he sighed and activated Nemesis and his own shield. The sight was an awful reminder to Nymph of Achos' previous demeanor. Cold. Heartless.

"Fine then. I'll just have to keep you from following me."


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Once again, I apologize for the significantly long wait I've put you guys through. I would also like you guys to know that this will no longer be the only story I'm writing. Those that are currently following me will receive notifications when their first chapters are up.**

**REVIEW RESPONSES:  
Anonymous FF Guest #1 (the one mentioned in the previous 2 chapters): Please, spare me the theatrics. And yes, there _was_ a confirmation of Season 3 of the series, but it ended up being cancelled and the second movie (which came out in theatres 4 months ago and was released on Blu-Ray/DVD today on August 29th), "Sora no Otoshimono Final: Eternal My Master" took its place.**

**FF Guest Archenoid (normally an FF member, but inexplicably couldn't log in when posting the review): Thank you. While I am determined to get this story finished, I may start work on the other stories I have planned at the same time. So, I may end up not being entirely dedicated to this story anymore. Needless to say, I will still finish it.**

**Anonymous FF Guest #2: No, of course not! Rest assured, there will be more to come. This will probably end up being as long as Dark Skies (21 chapters). As for the fate of Tomoki and Ikaros, I'm not going to say anything. We'll get there eventually.**

**Anonymous FF Guest #3: No, I haven't read the Percy Jackson series. Even if I have, I'm not sure I would be interested in making such a crossover.**

**Darth Sky Commander: Thank you. I will do my best to try and finish this.**

**FF Guest Valentine: Thank you so much! It means a lot to hear feedback like this.**

* * *

Achos remained where he was, with an impassive look on his face. He was waiting for Nymph and Astraea to make the first move. However, they too stood their ground. Nymph's face stayed hardened, not willing to let her emotions get the best of her.

_I hate to see that look on your face, _she thought, words that she kept in her head and decided not to say to Achos. _I hate to see you always unhappy. I want to see you smile... I want to see a real smile and not a fake one... but I'll take you down if I have to._

"Achos, please, don't do this!" Daedalus pleaded. But Achos wasn't swayed in the least by her words. He was severing his emotional ties and, rather frighteningly, it wasn't difficult for him to do so.

"I'm done with my life here," he declared. "No more pain and suffering. Everything will be quiet once more." Astraea tightened her grip on Chrysaor. She wasn't having this anymore.

"I'm tired of hearing your bullshit!" she screamed, charging forth with her sword.

"Astraea, no!" Daedalus cried, but it was already too late.

The battle had started.

* * *

Tomoki seemed to be catatonic. He couldn't do anything but sit and stare at the plate of food in front of him. He'd long stopped eating his breakfast. Sohara's death just completely destroyed him, making his sanity slowly slip away. Chaos, as usual, had a curious expression as she looked at Tomoki.

"Hey, Mister? Are you alright?" the little girl asked, tugging on the sleeve of his pajama sweater. His dark expression unchanged, he turned to look at Chaos, who was slightly taken aback by how grim he was.

"Not really," he admitted. _Everyone's dead... Sugata, the President, Hiyori, and Sohara... All gone._

_They're dead. And they're not coming back._

Suddenly, a muffled but loud boom came from outside, and Tomoki's expression finally changed into one of surprise as he looked up, wondering what could have caused a sound that loud.

"Did you hear that, Mister?" Chaos asked. Tomoki looked at her again and nodded.

"Yeah. Let's go check it out."

* * *

Yet again, Chrysaor's blade collided against Achos' shield, and the resulting force created an aerial shockwave. Achos then swiped Nemesis at Astraea, but she managed to avoid the sword just in time. Nymph took her place and charged in for an attack, but Achos stopped it short as he slammed his shield into her, sending her crash-landing into the ground. Tomoki and Chaos, who were about to exit from the doorway, moved back as Nymph slid across the gravel towards them and stopped right in front of the doorway. In shock, the two looked up to see Astraea and Achos engaging in fierce aerial combat.

"Achos, Astraea!" Tomoki screamed. "Stop this, _NOW__!_" But neither one of the angeloids listened to him. They continued to strike at each other with their swords, both of their blades clanging against each other loudly. As they continued to fight, Nymph struggled to stand up. Not being able to find the strength to stand, she settled for rising on her knees and tilted her head back to look at Achos, letting loose a blood-curdling scream as she fired Paradise Song.

Clearly, Achos had pissed her off.

Astraea, having heard the scream and turning back to look down, she quickly dashed to the side to avoid the oncoming blast. However, having already noticed the attack before Astraea, Achos didn't waste any time in activating Aegis. It would have been perhaps more convenient to use Aegis-L, but knowing that Nymph's attack was powerful and that it would require a lot of energy to fend it off, he knew that using the regular Aegis would be the best way to defend himself while still having enough energy left to fight. What he didn't notice though, was that Astraea had taken the time to move behind him. Accelerating straight at him with Chrysaor at the ready, Achos turned behind him after hearing Astraea cry out, and by that point she was dangerously close to him. Deactivating Nemesis, Achos lifted his shield to his face to block the strike. Then, pulling his arm back, he landed a fierce blow to the right side of Astraea's face. She skyrocketed towards the ground, creating several dust clouds as she collided into the street below numerous times.

Turning around again to check on Nymph, he noticed that she was not too far from him, already firing Paradise Song for a second time.

_Damn it! _he mentally cursed, raising his shield and activating Aegis-L. He managed to barely defend against the attack, but by the time it had subsided and he deactivated Aegis-L, he lost a significant amount of energy. As a last resort, one that he didn't want to use as part of the last bit of compassion he still had left, he activated Tycho and aimed it at Nymph, seeming to momentarily struggle with his aim.

"Achos, don't do this, please!" Tomoki pleaded. However, Achos ignored him and fired the weapon, a single plasma projectile racing towards Nymph. With no time to for her to react, she took the force of the impact and crashed through Tomoki's roof. Achos waited for her to retaliate, but after a few seconds of waiting, she didn't emerge from the house with a now-noticeably damaged roof. He deactivated Tycho and looked down at Tomoki, Daedalus, and Chaos for what he believed would be the last time. And, rather surprisingly, there was a look of sadness on his face. Tomoki grit his teeth, but didn't say anything to Achos. With nothing to say either, he turned, looked up at the sky, and accelerated at full speed, heading towards the Synapse. Daedalus watched blankly as Achos' form seemed to grow smaller and smaller, and then disappeared completely from sight.

"It's over now," she said quietly, still staring up at the sky. "It's all over."


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Hey guys, here's the next chapter, which I've posted on the same day as the previous one to try and make up for the wait (I said "try" because I'm aware that my chapters are really freakin' short). Now, believe me when I tell you:**

**The end is beginning.**

* * *

Tomoki clenched his fists tightly.

"Just like that..." he said through grit teeth, turning towards Daedalus. "Just like that, it's all over!?" Daedalus was taken aback by the sudden outburst. "It can't be over! Not after everything that's happened so far!" Daedalus shook her head regrettably.

"There isn't anything more we can do for Achos," she said quietly. Tomoki looked away from her and back up at the sky, a sad expression coming over his face.

"He's in Minos' hands, now."

* * *

Minos sat on his throne, leaning on his left fist with a seemingly bored expression. Keiro stood silently at his side, staring out at the courtyard outside the palace. The silence was disturbed when a figure flew in through the courtyard and landed on its feet at the entrance of the palace.

"He's finally arrived," Minos stated monotonously. Keiro merely nodded in response, not uttering a word. Walking until he was in front of Minos, Achos then stopped and stood where he was, looking up at him from below the steps leading up to Minos' throne.

"Here I am," Achos declared. "Now what do you want with me?" Minos didn't say anything for a long time, simply staring at Achos through the bangs that covered his eyes. Achos stood tensely, slightly fearing Minos' answer. After a long moment of silence, Minos spoke two words:

"Kill him."

Keiro nodded and responded, "My pleasure, Master."

Lifting up his arm, he thrust it forward and sent one of his appendages hurtling towards Achos. Reacting quickly, he dashed backwards, narrowly avoiding the blade that was now lodged in the floor. His eyes wide in shock, Achos looked back up at Minos.

"What's going on here!?" Achos shouted. "I thought I was supposed to come back here-"

"So that Master could lock you back up?" Keiro finished, shaking his head and retracting the blade he'd used. "No, no. Who ever said anything about locking you back up? You're too much of a threat to everything around you, so Master asked me to have you terminated once you came back to the Synapse."

"_I'm _too much of a threat to everything around me!?" Achos asked incredulously. "You had this abomination kill four people, Minos!"

"Four people..." Keiro scoffed. "You make it sound like a big number. You know, I could have killed everyone in Sorami City if I wanted. No, watching you and- the ones that were still alive anyway, your friends suffer was much more amusing for us to watch." Achos' expression contorted into a look of pure rage. He felt something snap, and he wasn't able to control himself.

"You... you sons of bitches!" he screamed, activating Nemesis. "YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Minos was unfazed.

"Finish him," Minos ordered, and Keiro dashed at Achos, who did the same thing. Achos struck at Keiro, who blocked the sword with his appendages. Spreading them out, he pushed Achos back and wasted no time in advancing on him. However, he managed to dodge Keiro's strike and attempted to retaliate, only to have Nemesis blocked again.

_He's too skilled for me to be taking him on alone, _he thought. _I need help. _Pulling back from Keiro, Achos turned away and sped out of the palace, flying away from the Synapse and heading back towards Sorami City.

"Follow him. Don't let him gather reinforcements," Minos said, and Keiro turned back and nodded. Then, in a menacing voice, he said:

"I'll be back, Master. With his head on one of my blades."

* * *

Everyone sat in the living room of Tomoki's house. Astraea and Nymph, who'd taken serious damage, leaned against a wall in fatigue.

"There has to be _something_ we can do," Tomoki muttered. "Something. _Anything._"

Nymph, meanwhile, was torn between her personal emotions. She loved Achos, and deeply cared for him. She worried for him in such a way that it made her chest ache. However, at the same time, he'd just practically tried to kill both her and Astraea just so he could leave, and a part of her was angry at him for that. She just didn't know what she wanted to do. She didn't know if she wanted to try and save Achos, or leave him to whatever fate he was going to face.

She didn't know anything anymore.

Suddenly, they heard a knock on the door. Tomoki reluctantly stood up and went to go answer it. Opening it, he was surprised to find an exhausted Achos at his doorstep, who was hunched over and leaning against it.

"Achos, what are you-"

"I need to see the others. _Now,_" Achos demanded, out of breath and breathing heavily. Tomoki rushed back inside, and in a few seconds, he was met with the faces of Tomoki, Ikaros, Nymph, Astraea, and Daedalus. It pained Achos when he noticed the angered looks of both Nymph and Astraea, but he pushed the feeling aside and focused on what was important in that moment.

"Look, I'm sorry. All of you," he said, his breathing becoming steady, "but I need your help now."

"_Our _help!?" Astraea asked incredulously. "You just tried to kill us!"

"Just let me finish, Astraea," Achos said, trying his best not to get irritated. "Keiro was waiting for me. Minos wanted him to kill me on the Synapse. Keiro's on the _Synapse._"

"What?" Nymph asked, confused.

"He hasn't been hiding in Sorami City. He's been in the _Synapse,_ waiting. Now, what I'm asking is for you guys to come with me. So we can finish Keiro once and for all."

"Why should we help you?" Astraea asked, folding her arms and scowling at Achos, who sighed and looked down at the ground in shame and frustration.

"Just this one time," Achos said, lifting his head. "This first and last time. Then I'll go away. For good." Nymph looked down at the floor, her face displaying a sad and thoughtful expression.

_Can I really do this...? _she thought. After some contemplation, she made up her mind, a look of resolve now crossing her face. _Yes, I can. I'll fight with Omega for one last time, because... I love him. _Nymph looked up and stepped outside.

"I'm with you," she stated. Achos smiled at her and nodded. Ikaros stepped outside and joined Nymph, nodding in agreement. The three of them then looked at Astraea, awaiting her response. After standing firm for a few moments, she closed her eyes and sighed, still looking agitated.

"Fine," she muttered, stepping outside with the other three angeloids.

Achos looked at them all, smiling, and said, "Thank you all for standing with me today."

"Um..." Everyone turned to a small voice coming from inside.

"Can I come, too...?" Chaos asked, standing at the doorway and looking up at the angeloids nervously. Achos shook his head.

"It's too dangerous," he answered. "You're just a little girl."

"But Chaos is a Second Generation Angeloid like Keiro," Nymph said. "Won't she be able to help?" Achos looked down in contemplation. After a while, he raised his head and nodded, although in a seemingly reluctant manner.

"Okay, you can come," Achos said, which caused Chaos to smile and giggle happily as she stepped outside with them all. "But you have to promise to be careful." Still smiling, Chaos nodded.

"Don't worry. I promise," she said to him. Achos smiled back, and he also nodded.

"Okay then. Let's-"

"End this. As cheesy as it sounds..." Everyone looked up in shock at the deep and haunting voice from above them. Keiro was floating in the air a short distance away from them, expanding his array of blades.

"I couldn't have agreed more."


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Okay, so I lied about not making you guys wait for a month again. I made you wait _more _than a month, and I'm really sorry about that. I just didn't expect real life to take away so much of my focus away from FanFiction. Again, I urge you not to worry; I do plan on finishing this story.**

**Man, isn't school such a wonderful place? Yes, it's a place where you can learn stuff, and be knowledgeable, and- no. Screw school. I hate it.**

* * *

Keiro wasted no time with his task as black balls of fire formed at the tips of his appendages. Then, he pulled his wings back and thrust them forward, launching the fireballs towards the group.

"Inside! NOW!" Achos shouted as they rushed inside the house, with Tomoki locking the door shut. They immediately heard two subsequent crashes afterward, and rushing to the living room (where one of the crashes occurred), they realized that the room had been set on fire. The black flame roared and spread quickly, forcing the group to exit the room. They tried to run down the hallway towards the back entrance, but several more fireballs burst through the roof of the house and prevented them from advancing any further. The impact of one that collided particularly close to the group ended up scattering them, throwing them through the walls on either side of them.

The onslaught kept going until, after another minute, the house was finally levelled. What was left in the wake of the destruction was a large mass of dust and ash, and several small, flickering black flames. There wasn't even any rubble left. The fire had just incinerated everything.

Everything except for the people that were inside the house.

Battered and bruised, like the rest of them were, Achos forced himself to sit up as he examined the disaster before him. Meanwhile, not far away from them in the air, Keiro chuckled softly to himself, admiring his work.

The other angeloids also got up, although not without a struggle. While it wasn't too serious, they'd sustained significant damage from Keiro's assault.

"Is everyone alright?" Nymph called out, looking around at her comrades.

"Where's Master?" Ikaros asked, looking around frantically. As Achos continued to scan his surroundings, he noticed a very bruised Tomoki lying unconscious near a weak Daedalus, who was knocked off of her transport device.

"I found Tomoki!" Achos exclaimed as he rushed over to the two. "Daedalus is there with him, too!" The other angeloids followed behind him Achos as he knelt by Tomoki, checking his vital signs. While he did that, Ikaros aided Daedalus back onto her hovercraft, who thanked her for doing so.

"Is he...?" Astraea asked cautiously as she peered over Tomoki's limp body. A moment passed, then Achos shook his head, although he didn't turn to look at the others.

"He's hurt pretty bad, but he'll live," he informed them. Then, he slowly turned to face his fellow angeloids with a solemn look on his face. He glanced behind them at Keiro, who waited patiently for them.

"It would be best if you guys could get him to the hospital. I'll take care of Keiro." Nymph was immediately opposed to the idea.

"No, we're not leaving you here, Omega!" Nymph argued. "We can't let you-"

"We don't have time to argue Nymph," Achos interrupted. "Go!" There was a lot of reluctance involved, but Nymph nodded her head in understanding. Then, very unexpectedly, she grabbed his neck and pulled him down for a quick kiss. Pulling back, Nymph allowed herself to smile a bit when she noticed Achos' shocked expression.

"Good luck," she whispered. "We'll be back soon." Achos' expression returned back to normal and he nodded at her, as she and the other angeloids left with Tomoki slung over Ikaros' shoulder. Then, turning his attention to Keiro, Achos took several steps closer until he was standing closer to him.

"Took you long enough," Keiro told Achos. "At least you didn't spend more time figuring out what you wanted to do."

"This is between you and me, Keiro," Achos growled, activating his Pandora mode along with his scythe and shield. "This is where it ends. This is where you _die._"

"That's the spirit, Achos. That's the spirit!" Keiro cheered mockingly, and the two then charged at each other with a cry.

* * *

The angeloids soon descended in front of the hospital in Sorami City, an unconscious Tomoki still slung over Ikaros' shoulder.

"Let's be quick, we have to help Omega!" Nymph urged. Ikaros nodded her understanding, while Astraea wildly looked around.

"Um, guys..." she piped up, "where's Chaos?"

* * *

Achos repeatedly struck at Keiro, but the second-gen angeloid continued to swiftly dodge and block all of his hits.

"It's finally here," Keiro said. "Can you feel it? The end is finally here. At last, it's _FINALLY HERE!_" It was at this point that Keiro began to retaliate, thrusting two blades towards Achos. He then in turn used his scythe and shield to deflect both of them, swinging them outward and making the blades expand and retract.

_He's losing his mind. There's no telling how dangerous he'll be now, _Achos thought to himself as he struck at Keiro again with Melanthios. However, after blocking the blow, he grabbed Achos' arm and turned in midair, throwing him back towards the wreckage of what was once Tomoki's house. As Keiro prepared to advance on Achos, he was suddenly knocked back by the flat end of a gigantic blade, making him momentarily disoriented. When he regained control of himself, Keiro noticed that the blade belonged to Chaos, who very quickly charged at him after the initial attack.

"Interesting. Very interesting indeed..." Keiro mused to himself as Chaos prepared to attack him with all of her appendages. He quickly formed a blockade with his own wings, stopping Chaos in her tracks. She attempted to follow up with a punch as both angeloids retracted their blades, but Keiro grabbed her fist and counter-attacked two punches of his own while holding her in place, landing one blow to her chest and the other to her face. While Chaos managed to land a hit of her own to Keiro's face with her free hand, it didn't do much as he flung her in the opposite direction. But before she could regain control over herself, he sped in front of her and slammed his fist down over her back, sending Chaos into the road below in a second. As she collided into the ground, a giant dust cloud rose up as a massive crater was formed by the impact. While Keiro looked down at the crater, Achos sped behind him with Nemesis II at the ready. With a loud and aggressive yell, he thrust the sword forward at Keiro's chest just as he turned around to face him, eliciting a surprised cry of pain from him.

While Achos had managed to stab Keiro in the chest, though, the blade didn't go all the way through. It was stopped short by the centre of the appendages on Keiro's back, which prevented Achos from finishing the job. An infuriated Keiro pulled back from the blade and sped back in, landing an uppercut under Achos' chin. As he descended and then descended, Keiro then accelerated forward at full speed, landing an extremely powerful blow to Achos' chest as he spun backward. Now completely unable to control his movement, Achos spun back at an extremely fast speed until he ended up crashing hard into a large, empty field. Much of the field's surface was now destroyed; a severely weakened Achos lying on the ground. He was very disoriented, and his system was on the verge of shutting off. Him now being in a comatose-like state, Achos had no way of knowing what was happening around him since his eyes remained shut and refused to open while his system attempted to fix itself. It was at least 2 minutes before Keiro arrived at the area, hovering above Achos. After a while, he spread out his arms and the blades on either side of him extended outward.

"Just die already," Keiro snarled, as he slowly pulled his arms back.

He was going to impale Achos.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Man, I am really losing track of time here...**

**I'm not going to lie, I want to get this story done already. I've already tried so hard not to stop working on it...**

* * *

Ikaros, Nymph and Astraea stood quietly around Tomoki as he lay in a hospital bed, still unconscious from the earlier assault. While Ikaros worried greatly for her master's well-being, Nymph and Astraea were getting impatient, knowing that Achos was in trouble and that he needed assistance as he squared off against the new second-gen angeloid.

"Alpha, we have to go!" Nymph urged. "Tomoki will be fine, but Omega and Chaos are in danger right now!"

"I know, but..." Ikaros never took her eyes off of Tomoki. "I don't want to leave Master's side."

"We can't stay here forever, Ikaros!" Astraea argued. "Come on!" After a while, Ikaros nodded her head in reluctance and turned away from Tomoki. The three angeloids exited the hospital building, and took off into the sky. Nymph was very concerned for Achos safety right now; Keiro was a powerful enemy and he barely stood a chance against him on his own. Even with Chaos there to assist, the two were still at risk of being defeated.

_Will we make it there in time? _she thought anxiously to herself as they headed back towards the fight.

* * *

Before Keiro could finish Achos off, several blades lodged themselves into his back, making him arch upward in surprise before he was brought down to the ground. Chaos, who barely managed to recover from her injuries, then rotated in the air and threw Keiro back and away from Achos as he crash-landed in another area of the field. Assuming that the threat had been taken care of, she flew over to Achos, helping him sit up.

"Are you okay, Achos?" she asked in a concerned and innocent voice. As he attempted to regain his focus, he suddenly noticed a fast-approaching figure from behind the little girl.

"Look out!" he shouted, pushing her aside and rolling over as an extended blade narrowly missed both angeloids. It was retracted as Keiro flew past, and he hovered not too far away from them.

"You're pests! All of you!" he cried, thrusting his wings forward. The sharp tips embedded themselves in the dirt as Achos and Chaos dodged and weaved through them. Activating Melanthios, Achos accelerated upward and slashed at Keiro. They attacked each other in a frenzy, neither one of them willing to let up. Eventually, Keiro managed to block an incoming blow and struck at Achos with a wrist blade that pierced through his shoulder. Grunting in pain, Achos kicked him away and he backed up from his opponent. Now struggling to hold his weapon upright due to the wound, he charged at Keiro again, only to be swatted away from one of his blades into the ground below. Keiro then turned around to see Chaos heading towards him, and lifted one of his appendages just in time to deflect her attack. The two second-gens were engaged in a battle between their wings, striking and blocking every which way.

"You can't- you _won't_\- win this battle," Keiro sneered. "You do realize that, right?" Thrusting his blades beneath Chaos' feet, he then brought them upward, causing her to spin backward in her position in the air. Racing forward, he landed a powerful blow to her chest and knocked her away. Achos, who'd just gotten back up, proceeded to lash out at Keiro, tackling him from behind and slamming him into the ground. He turned the second-gen around and activated Tycho II, his other hand clasped firmly around Keiro's throat. He began to charge the cannon up until it sparked.

The battle was ending.

"It's over," Achos declared, firing the weapon. There was a large explosion, and the force threw him back and away from the area. He slid across the ground, his clothes torn and his system damaged. However, he was still conscious, and he stood up off of the ground with considerable effort. Ikaros, Nymph and Astraea soon arrived, descending to the ground in front of Achos some distance away. Chaos followed behind them, the right sleeve of her outfit torn from the fight.

"Achos!" Astraea gasped, noticing the significant external damage that had been done to him.

"Are you okay?" Nymph asked. Achos looked quite weak, and he panted as he tried to stand. But after he looked at the trio for a while, he gave them a reassuring smile.

"We did it," he said. "We won." Almost immediately, Nymph and Astraea began to cheer, while Ikaros simply gave Achos a nod.

It finally came. An end to the bloodshed and death that followed in Keiro's wake. They put a stop to his reign of terror, and they could relax. They could go home, and continue to live their peaceful, quiet lives. It was finished.

At least, that's what everyone thought.

Out of the dust cloud that came from the earlier explosion, a shadow stood up slowly, taking a moment to adjust its posture so that it was standing up straight. Nymph noticed it first, and with an expression of surprise and horror, she screamed out:

"Achos, behind you!"

Achos gave her a confused look, but it soon turned into one of shock as he felt pain sear through his body. His eyes widened, he trembled where he stood, eventually coughing out some blood. Slowly turning his head downwards, he saw that his chest had been pierced through. The other angeloids were frozen, horrified by the sight in front of them. Keiro stood behind Achos, his clothes almost completely torn and his hood gone, exposing the face of a young boy with red eyes and blond hair. He held his arm out, a purple blade extending forth from it. The others couldn't believe their eyes.

Achos wasn't going to make it after all.


	14. Notice

**I'm sorry guys, I just can't do this anymore. I've become completely detached from SnO, and have lost my motivation to finish this story in the process. I apologize to those who wanted to see it completed; I know there were just a few chapters left, but I'm not feeling up to wrapping up this storyline.**

**Thank you to all those who read both "Dark Skies" and what was written of "Last Goodbyes". It means a lot.**


	15. Notice 2

**So, I never, _EVER _thought in a million years that I'd be doing this. However, since I've noticed that there's still been a popular demand for me to do so despite how long it's been since I've updated it... I will be finishing this story.**

**Yep! You've read that right. This isn't an April Fool's joke that's a month late; I really will be finally completing what's left of "Last Goodbyes". I never expected that this story (as well as the one that came before it) would gain so much recognition from those of you that had read it, and I've been quite surprised by how many of you have asked me to finish it off even though it's been well over a year since I've even made any mention of this fic. It really does mean a lot to me that you guys have enjoyed it so much, and I thank you greatly for the support that you've shown. Unfortunately at the moment, this notice will currently be all you'll have to go by; right now, I've been very sick and busy with a lot of school related stuff especially now that the end of my (school) year is approaching, so I'm not in much of a condition to be writing anything as of present. But, you can still expect me to upload another chapter for this soon, and at long last conclude this fan-made story arc which I started such a long time ago. Seriously... for you guys to be requesting that I complete this even after the time that's gone by since the last chapter that was released?**

**... That's awesome. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for your praise, everyone. You will be rewarded for your endurance very soon.**

* * *

**[Also, for those keeping tabs on "We're Still Here" (a "Five Night's at Freddy's" fanfic, for those who are unaware), a new chapter for that should also be uploaded soon! I know it's been two months and a day, and I said that it wouldn't take any longer than two months for me to update the story... but then again, my life's been pretty busy at the moment, so my time has become quite limited. :P]**


	16. Chapter 14

**AN: And... here it is. The chapter that many of you guys have still been waiting for nearly two years after the release of the previous one. Now we're all finally on our way back to concluding the "Dark Skies" story arc, and bringing finality to all of the characters who have managed to survive through this particularly terrible, terrible part of said arc. As you already know, many have already died at this point, and my own OC Achos has been the latest to fall victim to Keiro's madness... so the question still remains:**

**Will there be anyone else to take the blade?**

* * *

**REVIEW RESPONSES:  
**

**FF Guest Love times 2: That's a secret, my friend. However, the killing spree in general had always been the plan ever since I started the planning for both "Dark Skies" and "Last Goodbyes"; after creating an initial SnO fanfic that I felt stayed very true to the anime's roots and more heavily focused on the romantic and comedic dynamic between the characters, I wanted its sequel to be something that was much darker and more involved in territory that the manga had not touched down on until the last several chapters. I wanted the loss of the characters to feel real instead of ultimately relying on the cop-out in the manga which ended with the revival of everyone who had perished, and so I ended up with what you can see so far. I can say with utmost certainty at this point that I will not be bringing any of them back, and that they are all really dead for good.**

**Anonymous FF Guest #1: You'll see what kind of ending it is soon enough. Whether it is good or bad? I am not obligated to say.**

**FF Guest Niqua: Ah, don't worry, I haven't let anyone discourage me during the time that I had been writing this story! It was just a case of real life matters having gotten in the way as well as a severe drop in my interest in the original source material for this fic, but other than that, I was never going to let others dictate how I write the story. It's my story, and I'll do what I want with it; I'm not going to change any of it on the whim of anyone else but my own. I'm also very pleased to hear how much you love this story and I thank you for being so patient while this story has gone under for such a long time. Um, as for your idea with Keiro...? I'm afraid that I'm not going to be doing that kind of thing at all with him, heh. He was never meant to be that kind of character; I've always envisioned him to be this menacing psychopath who really has nothing else on his mind but murder, and putting him in the kind of stereotypical environment mostly seen here where characters are involved in overly romantic or sexual situations with the reader or other characters (with very poor writing, nonetheless) would really tarnish the purpose of his existence in the first place. Heh; yeah, I get it, the previous chapter has revealed that he is presumably a good-looking Angeloid and all... but he really wouldn't fit with the kind of setting you're describing. I apologize for that, but I hope you can understand as well.**

**Anonymous FF Guest #2: Thank you so much for your kind words! I very much appreciate it; I'm also feeling much better now, so that's good news as well!**

**ImpulseMelan: I'm glad that you're enthralled by the grim premise of this story. The chaos of it has always been my intention; I wanted romance to be on the 'side burner' for this one and make someone where the reader really starts to feel scared for those who could end up being erased from the story altogether. I think I've captured that essence very well, as can be seen from the reactions of other readers earlier on, and I am admittedly proud of myself for being capable of doing that. As for that chaos being a problem...? Well, that can be a problem in turns of reader reactions; as has happened while I was in the middle of writing this fic, I had to deal with the issue of a particularly pissed off reader who was not at all happy because of how many of the canon characters I had killed off systematically. There can be some who'll be upset by the fact that so many people have already died, and that's just something that one has to deal with if that's the element they're going to focus on for their story.**

* * *

All of his muscles had gone rigid, eyes wide with bewilderment and his throat helplessly emitting one croaking noise after the other which came from the numbing pain of the blade piercing through his back and out his chest. "You fool... You didn't _really _think that was the end, did you? Hm. I'm... very sorely disappointed in you, Achos." The black-haired angeloid gasped, then coughed out more blood, vision growing more hazy by the second. There was a gradually deafening ring in his ears to accompany all the other white-hot sensations overwhelming his body during that moment, and he could only faintly hear the screams of all the others except for Ikaros- who found herself unable to make a sound- as more warm liquid began to pour forth from his chest following the abrupt removal of the appendage lodged inside of it. There was the sound of three takeoffs, all from Chaos, Astraea and Keiro as they engaged in their own battle amidst the skies above them, and then any semblance of being able to hear anything from a distance disappeared from Achos as he collapsed to his knees. Caught by Nymph before he could fall face down into the dirt, he was laid onto his back with a grunt, Ikaros pressing both of her hands against the wound in his torso while Nymph's grasped the limp right one of the male angeloid's.

This wasn't supposed to happen. It should have been over, finished. They were about to go back home and restart everything from what had been destroyed. That was clear in Astraea's crimson eyes as the blade of Chrysaor struck again and again against the menacing ridges of Keiro's wings. It was clear in Chaos' eyes as she combatted their foe using an assortment of wild patterns formed by her own appendages. It was clear in Nymph's eyes as she begged for Achos to stay with them with tears already staining her cheeks in a continuous stream. It was even clear in Ikaros' eyes as she tried to find _some way at all _to be able to at least keep him conscious for a little bit longer. And it was clear in Achos' dying eyes, as he thought about how they hadn't won after all. Despite all the other people who'd fallen prey to their unpredictable enemy, the struggles they had gone through and the effort they had put into taking down Keiro... they hadn't won. Their attempts had all been in vain, and they had not won. He could no longer experience life for what it was, or maybe finally find and fully understand love. He couldn't spend time with the people who mattered most anymore. All of that had been taken away from him, and there was an undeniable sense of fear in him as he felt his grip slipping. He could no longer ensure that everyone else would be safe... He could no longer guarantee a good ending for Sorami City itself.

"...se, Omega. Ple... to stay awake. Please don't sleep yet." His vision was alternating between spontaneous sparks and a field full of black, the softest of groans leaving his lips as he tried to fulfill Nymph's wishes and keep himself steady. But at this point, with everything to him becoming nothing but blanks, he knew that he was done for. There wasn't a thing more that he or his friends could do to change an outcome that was ultimately inevitable.

"... Have... to go, now," Achos murmured, seeing a few flashes of white above him as the three other angeloids continued clashing. "Nnh... They need you."

"Achos, you have to put your remaining power towards stabilizing your reactor," Ikaros suddenly urged with one of those tones of voices which she was rarely heard using. "I can't stop the bleeding for much longer... Your system functionality is dropping rapidly. You have to-"

"It's okay, Ikaros... It's... okay."  
"... We should have gotten here faster," Nymph whimpered, sniffling as she clutched Achos' hand even tighter. "If we'd just gone faster..."

"There isn't... unh... anything you could have done," he whispered in a hauntingly ghastly voice, forcing his lips to peel back into a smile as best as he could as he shifted his eyes to look directly at the blue-haired angeloid. "I just... shouldn't have been so careless. But... there _is _something... you can do now. Help them... Stop him before..."

"Please, Omega. Please, don't leave us!"  
"For me... Go and... stop him, Nymph."

The sparks in his vision were becoming much more frequent now, and there was an emboldened warning about how low his system functionality had gotten. _Yeah, yeah, I get it, _he thought to himself. _I'm going... _Slowly craning his neck towards Ikaros, he stared at her for a long few seconds, then smiled more sadly at her as he thought about all the time gone by. At least now, even in spite of the circumstances that had befallen him... he could gather up the courage to be more vocal about his sentiments. "For your Master, too... go... and stop him." His breath rapidly leaving him with every word he spoke and his body now beginning to crackle and dissipate like Hiyori's and Sohara's had, he at last gave himself the energy he needed with whatever of it he had left right now in order to say what he hadn't said to Ikaros before:

"I... love... you."

Words now spoken, words that he no longer needed to wish to speak. Words he no longer needed to wish to say to her. Words he wished to hear from her, but could be content not hearing from her so long as she had heard them from him.

"Omega, _no! _Omega! _OMEGA__!_"

Bit by bit, he slowly disappeared into nothingness with his eyes now closed and a weak yet content smile remaining on his lips, Nymph feeling an absolutely unbearable pain crush her reactor instantaneously as she relived her last moments with Hiyori and Sohara with the angeloid that she had grown to love dearly in the four months that had passed since his arrival in Sorami. She screamed and cried out the word "_NO!_" over and over again as though she thought it could somehow stop anything, that one word dissolving into pure vocalizations of anguish as she was no longer left with anything to hold onto but her own incredibly hurting chest while sobbing harder than she ever had before. Ikaros herself could feel tears burning in her eyes while she looked fixedly in horror at the ground where the male angeloid had once been, feeling an unprecedented amount of sorrow overtaking her at the knowledge that they had all just lost yet another good friend of theirs.

Achos was gone. He was no longer with any of them.

* * *

"Tch...! I... WILL... _KILL... _YOU!"  
"You're very welcome to try, Delta. You're very welcome to try."

There was a particularly cold tinge to Keiro's voice as he spoke this time, seeming to move with a little less effort as he maneuvered here and there to be able to block the collective strikes of both Astraea and Chaos. With his emotional control having spiked into a near-fully psychotic state due to the frustration at having had his systems messed around with by the blow of Achos' upgraded cannon, he was now putting much more of his complete abilities to use to put an end to the rest of the angeloids already and was becoming a near-untouchable force of destruction. Eventually deciding to not play so defensively anymore, he bent two of his appendages around the curves of Chaos' and used the grip he had on them to send her flying towards Astraea as she went in for another blow, knocking them both backward and forcing them to land on the field below due to them not being able to recover from the hit in time. Pulling his right arm back and molding that half of his wings to ready another sure-fire strike, Keiro then found himself being interrupted and had to adjust his position so that he could form a blockade several feet in front of himself to defend himself against the sudden barrage of missiles headed his way.

_Artemis... Looks like the other two are done playing around down there. _Extending his wings outward and allowing his eyes to shift from target to target, he found himself surrounded by all four of the angeloids who remained on the battlefield, slightly amused but conclusively unfazed by their presence around him. "It should be of interest for you all to know this: I was created and programmed for the sole purpose of bringing Achos back to the Synapse and putting an end to him after Type Sigma failed to simply eliminate you all," Keiro decided to announce, his short blonde hair swaying gently in the wind as he spoke. "It was decided by Minos that none of you could be beaten into submission or nothingness altogether after all, but still recognized that Achos was a weapon capable of destroying both Earth and the Synapse if he wanted to. So, I became the contingency for that."

"He was _NOT A WEAPON!_" Nymph exclaimed angrily, facial features twisted into an expression of hatred which no one had ever seen before in all of her moments of frustration. "He was as every bit a regular person as anyone else is!"

"Oh, he _was _a weapon, my dear. A weapon capable of destruction that could rival the Uranus Queen's, believe it or not. My task is now complete and Minos no longer has anything to bother with since he is so broken up over his countless failures... but I believe that this city should fall. As for the rest of the cities that you downers have carved out for yourselves." One after the other, the group of four around the Second Generation Angeloid evolved into their Pandora forms, now at the ready to attack and take him on all at once. He threatened the very existence of Earth itself, and he was an enemy long-due for elimination after he had already killed so many people who mattered so much.

"So, I encourage you now: make your move, and we shall see who is next for the taking."


End file.
